The House That Bobby Built: How One Man Changed JUCO Baseball Forever

TUSCALOOSA, AL — Bobby Sprowl was 22 years old the first time he stepped into a big league locker room as a player.

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After a stellar career on the mound for the University of Alabama, Sprowl was taken with the 39th overall selection in the second round by the Boston Red Sox in the 1977 MLB Draft. In his last season at The Capstone, he recorded 11.54 strikeouts per 9 innings, which led the nation.

Despite being taken with an early pick and spending only a short time in the minor leagues, money was tight for the blue-collar kid from Sandusky, Ohio, when he finally got the call-up.

In an interview with Patch, Sprowl reflected on the experience and recalled how Adidas Superstars — the classic sneakers with three vertical stripes on each side — were the preferred footwear for the fashion-conscious athlete. For the young pitcher, though, his off-brand shoes and cheap clothes stood out and didn't go unnoticed in the Red Sox clubhouse.

"You didn't make much money in the minor leagues," Sprowl told me. "So I had the [knock-off Adidas] with the four stripes and they had all those designer clothes and I had a pair of just regular jeans. And one of the guys said, 'Hey, this is the big leagues. We don't wear fake Adidas and blue jeans.' It's sort of shocking a little bit when they say it."

He had things to learn, sure, but Sprowl had made it farther in that moment than 99% of those who ever play the game.

In the moment, he also thought back to sitting in his dorm room in Tuscaloosa and watching the famous 1975 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Cincinnati Reds — the series where power-hitting catcher Carlton Fisk hit his iconic walk-off home run over the Green Monster at Fenway Park, jumping up and down and waving for the ball to stay fair and leave the park.

It's one of the greatest moments in all of sports history and a homer that forced a game seven that the Red Sox would lose. And in 1978, Sprowl found himself teammates with legends like Fisk, Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Rice, Fred Lynn and Dwight Evans.

"It all happened so quick," Sprowl said with a laugh.

But fast-forward nearly half a century later and Sprowl's playing days have been mostly forgotten — justifiably overshadowed by his wildly successful 32-year career as the head baseball coach at Shelton State Community College.

Indeed, just last week Sprowl's squad won the Alabama Community College Conference Tournament and secured a spot in the 2023 NJCAA World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado — the sixth World Series appearance for the Bucs during Sprowl's career, which pretty much encompasses the entire history of the baseball program at Shelton State.

"This team is dominated by pitching so when our pitchers are throwing good and our position guys are locked in, we're pretty good," Sprowl said of the 2023 team. "Every now and then we'll struggle a little bit offensively, but as long as we play defense and score some runs, we're usually pretty good. We get about a week and a half break [before the World Series] and you try not to get guys hurt. It's hard to motivate them a little bit because they are so excited to go out there ... now we've just got to get ready for the air out there and the altitude, because it's a little tough to breathe."

At 67 years old, Sprowl has likely forgotten more baseball than most novices could ever fit into a lifetime. But his impact on the game is undeniable — a scope that reaches far past the Tuscaloosa County line and up through the ranks of Major League Baseball.

As Sprowl and the Bucs get ready to make the trip to Grand Junction, Tuscaloosa Patch set out to tell the story of how one man single handedly changed the game he loves so much.

For The Love Of The Game

Future Hall of Fame inductee Harold Baines of St. Michaels High School in Maryland was the first overall selection in the 1977 MLB Draft and fellow future Hall of Famer Paul Molitor would go with the third pick.

A gritty left-hander from the University of Alabama, Sprowl was taken that year with the 39th overall selection in the second round by the Boston Red Sox. He was also drafted ahead of the following players that you may recognize: Mookie Wilson (2nd round, 42nd pick); Ozzie Smith (4th round, 86th pick); Tim Raines (5th round, 106th pick) and Chili Davis (11th round, 270th pick).

For pop culture fans, it's also fun to think about if things had gone differently for Sprowl in Boston.

Seriously, think about it: Sprowl could have easily ended up a special guest on an episode of the hit sitcom "Cheers," possibly stopping in like so many other athletes to visit fictional former Red Sox pitcher Sam "Mayday" Malone, who hung up his spikes after the 1977 season — the year before Sprowl came to town.

Sprowl's major league debut for the Red Sox came on Sept. 5, 1978 against the Baltimore Orioles and ended in a 4-1 loss in front of 15,000 fans at Baltimore's Memorial Stadium.

It must also be noted that his big league debut was roughly half a year after Sprowl was grazed on his right arm by a bullet fired through the wall of his spring training apartment in Winter Haven, Florida, on a Saturday night by a neighbor who thought they were shooting at a burglar, according to an Associated Press wire story from April 1978.

Sprowl surrendered a single to the inauspicious Kiko Garcia to begin his major league career, but did go on to strike out future Hall of Famer Eddie Murray as he clawed across seven innings of work in the losing effort.

"The man pitched well, he did an outstanding job," Red Sox manager Don Zimmer told reporters following Sprowl's debut. "His poise didn't surprise me. He'll pitch Sunday against the Yankees."

Starting on third base that night for the Red Sox was a face familiar to the young pitcher — former Alabama baseball standout and Crimson Tide backup quarterback Butch Hobson.

Hobson went 1-for-3 that game, singling to left field off of legendary pitcher Jim Palmer. Years later, Hobson recalled his earliest memories of Sprowl during an interview with Patch.

"He actually came up in a pretty tough spot there," Hobson explained. "That was when we lost that 13-game lead and we ended up playing that playoff game with the Yankees. Bobby came up and did a good job that season."

While Sprowl didn't pitch in that famous ballgame on Oct. 2, 1978, the one-game American League East tiebreaker ended with a walk-off home run by Bucky Dent — one of the most iconic moments in Major League Baseball history.

Sprowl's first year in Boston was promising, despite an 0-2 record. Over three starts and 12.2 innings pitched, the rookie finished with 10 strikeouts and 10 walks, with an earned run average of 6.39.

But something was off when he reported to spring training for the 1979 season.

"I'll never forget throwing in spring training against the old Montreal Expos and I'm throwing balls halfway up the backstop in front of a packed house for spring training," Sprowl said. "It was embarrassing because people don't understand it. They think it's as easy as playing catch."

Fans of baseball will easily understand when one says they or somebody else is suffering from a case of the "yips."

Often referred to in baseball circles as "Steve Sax Disease," the yips can best be defined as a kind of nervousness or mental block that causes an elite competitor to not be able to do routine things like throw strikes or make the throw to first base.

"I pitched fine for them in '78, the year we got beat in the playoff game," Sprowl recalled. "But then I go to spring training and I get a case of the yips. I couldn't throw a strike in a batting cage and I ended up getting traded that spring to Houston for Bob Watson."

Watson is credited with scoring the 1,000,000th run in Major League Baseball history, played for 19 years and was inducted into the Houston Astros Hall of Fame in 2020 — the same year he died from Stage 4 kidney disease at the age of 74.

Following the trade, Sprowl became a Houston Astro and was a member of one of the most historic pitching staffs of all time. Indeed, when Sprowl arrived in Houston, the Astros had 20-game winner J.R. Richards and Joe Niekro. But ahead of the 1980 season, the Astros made a blockbuster deal to secure fireballer Nolan Ryan as the ace of its staff.

Sprowl said he was able to shake off the yips after he was traded, but admitted he simply wasn't as good as he had been prior to spring training in 1979.

"I was able to throw strikes again, but I didn't have the stuff I used to have," he told Patch. "I could strike out guys and every pitch was a strike and all of a sudden, you're throwing all over the batting cage for whatever reason. [The yips are] something. If I could figure it out, there would be a lot of good pitchers out there if you could say this is how you fix it."

Before their playing days together in Boston, Hobson recalled visiting Tuscaloosa in the off-season to work out with the Alabama baseball team and even took batting practice off of Sprowl.

Hobson, who would go on to be the manager of the Boston Red Sox and still manages in the minor leagues, then spoke at length about Sprowl overcoming the yips and going on to play three more seasons in the big leagues. In his view, this experience laid the foundation for who Sprowl would become as a coach.

"When you go through something like that, it's difficult," Hobson said. "And for him to come through that and to beat it is something. Because there's a lot of guys like Steve Sax with the Dodgers who dealt with it his whole career. He just happened to be able to be a good hitter. But Bobby beat that.

"And I've been out and listened to him and how he talks to [his players] and if you're listening to him talk, it's all about practicing for a reason," Hobson added. "We practice to get better. You know, when you're on the practice field, it's not just to go out and try. You work to get better. You've got to get better. We've got to get better every day. And that's what he teaches and that's why he's a good coach."

Building A Winner

After four years in the big leagues, Sprowl retired following the 1981 season — a season that saw him log a career-high 15 appearances and earning one save, with no wins.

In all, Sprowl appeared in 22 games — primarily during the 1981 season. As Patch previously reported, he compiled a career mark of 0-3, with a 5.44 ERA over 46.1 innings.

During his playing career, he gave up a home run to the legendary catcher Johnny Bench and was on the other end of one of the 4,256 hits carded by Pete Rose.

Conversely, his list of strikeout victims is just as interesting and includes notable names like Dusty Baker, Phil Niekro (twice), Joe Morgan, Lance Parrish, Lou Whitaker (twice), and Tim Raines.

Sprowl's last appearance in a major league game was on October 3, 1981 in Dodger Stadium, in the next-to-last game of the regular season. He gave up one hit in one inning, walking two and striking out Jerry Grote in the bottom of the seventh. Ken Landreaux was the last batter Sprowl faced, forcing him to ground out to first base.

Sprowl told Patch he had been "hanging around" the majors but knew it was time to hang it up and pursue something different.

The Shelton State baseball program can trace its humble origins to around this time, with the first incarnation formed in 1979 and playing for two years in the Tuscaloosa County Park & Recreation Authority (PARA) league before officially disbanding.

In 1984, former Cleveland Indians shortstop Jack Kubiszyn, who would later go on to serve on the Tuscaloosa City Council, formed the first true Shelton State baseball team to compete at the collegiate level.

"They had just started the Shelton baseball team and asked me if I would help," he said, mentioning that even the head coaching job was part-time. "And so I helped them out some in the spring. And then [Kubiszyn] decided after a year he didn't want to do it. It was taking up too much of his time and I took over. And so that's how I really got started in that."

These were the fledgling days of junior college sports, especially baseball — decades before one-and-done talents like Bryce Harper opted for JUCO as a way to sharpen their skills for an extra year before entering the draft. Thanks to committed coaches like Sprowl, though, JUCO baseball has since evolved into big business and provides a crucial pipeline of prospects to the professional ranks.

But it wasn't always that way and Sprowl thought back on the days before the glitz, glamour and workable budgets.

"I remember when we were riding school buses and these kids that play for us now, they've got it made and they get charter buses and have a first-class facility," he said, reflecting on the days before the current Shelton State campus was built off of Highway 69 South. "When I first started, we were all at Skyland Boulevard in that old strip mall."

Still, despite the hard-scrabble beginnings for the program, Sprowl wouldn't have to wait long to find success and begin to truly build a winner.

The 1988 season stands out for Sprowl, who recruited Birmingham native and future Seattle Mariner Russ Davis to play for the Buccaneers.

"I remember the early years," Sprowl said when asked about his favorite teams and players. "I still think the 1988 team that we had was the best team the state of Alabama had ever seen."

He then reflected on pitcher Jared Bradford, who went on to be a standout for the LSU Tigers before embarking on a minor league career. Other stars included Bibb County products Clay Jones and Matt Downs.

Downs was a talented infielder and, after transferring to Alabama, went on to play in the big leagues for the San Francisco Giants and Houston Astros. He is currently the head baseball coach at Marion Military Institute, which regularly plays Shelton State, and was also an infielder on the Tuscaloosa Patch All-Time Tuscaloosa Baseball Team.

"There's been a lot of really good players and even some that aren't the names you still remember," Sprowl said. " I mean it's hard to single anybody out. But I talk to Ben Short and Jerry Shelton almost every day."

Both Short and Shelton were standouts for Sprowl and both men sired sons who went on to be talented ballplayers at the University of Alabama — Connor Short and Nathan Shelton.

Butch Hobson formed much of his worldview and approach to coaching through lessons taught by his football coach — Paul W. "Bear" Bryant. In reflecting on what makes Sprowl a special leader, he cited the Shelton State baseball coach's respect for such a tough mental game.

"Coach Bryant used to always talk about being mentally tough, which means if you're going to try at anything, you're going to face adversity," Hobson said. "How do you handle it? How do you respond to it? But it's important to really focus on playing from your heart and let your heart do it for you. I think Bobby has a knack for that and being able to separate [from the mental aspects of the game] and to motivate his guys to be fundamentally sound and practice, practice, practice. You practice for a reason. You're not just out here just to go through the motions and the better you practice, the better you're going to play."

The Mentor

Former Shelton State pitcher Matt Wolfenbarger is a lifelong best friend to this reporter and was the trusty ace on our high school baseball at Northside High School

Like the nerdy kid in the funny hat in the 1993 film "The Sandlot" announcing the big game for Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez, I've had the privilege of getting to write about Wolfenbarger's success as a college baseball coach during his time leading the program at MUW in Columbus, Mississippi, while I was a newspaper editor in the Golden Triangle.

He's since returned to the high school ranks, but his love for the game is as pure today as it was when he was the only kid with a five o'clock shadow playing little league baseball at Kentuck.

Wolfenbarger was also a pitcher for Sprowl on two state championship teams that made the trip to Grand Junction, Colorado, to play in the NJCAA World Series. In 2009, Wolfenbarger even pitched in a World Series game.

"Playing for Coach Sprowl during the World Series was an awesome experience and it was a moment in my career that helped shape the type of coach I want to be and the philosophy I want to have," he told me. "There always existed a degree of confidence from coach, especially during the two state championships and two World Series teams I was a part of. That never seemed to waiver, regardless of what was happening on the field."

Wolfenbarger went on to say that Sprowl made his players feel like they had a chance to win every game, no matter who they were up against. Indeed, the Bucs even bested a Wallace-Hanceville team in 2008 that featured future MLB All-Star closer Craig Kimbrel.

"He knew how to get the best out of every single player and how to cultivate a winning culture," Wolfenbarger said. "In another sense, the moment was never too big for us because we were more than prepared."

The number of lives touched by Sprowl is incalculable, with this reporter's own little brother pitching for the Bucs during Sprowl's tenure. But there's arguably no Bobby Sprowl disciple more accomplished and dedicated than current Shelton State assistant coach Jake Vickerson.

Like his talented older brother, Nick, Jake Vickerson was a standout infielder at Hillcrest High School and followed in his brother's footsteps to Shelton State and then to Mississippi State University.

Vickerson might as well bleed green and white, though, considering he has known Sprowl since he was a little boy and on through when his brother was one of the best players to ever come through the program.

"My brother and our older cousin both played at Shelton and we grew up three houses down from each other," Vickerson told me of Sprowl. "So the number of years of being able to kind of tag along and go where they went. Being the younger guy, I would always get to practice and go to their games and be a part of it from a young age. It shaped me when I was coming along as a player."

Indeed, Vickerson can boast his own share of credit for the success enjoyed by the Bucs this season, but, like his head coach, he's humble and apprehensive about celebrating too soon.

Still, there are valuable lessons to be learned even from Vickerson's time playing for Sprowl.

"When I played, we finished third in the country and actually got beat in the semifinal game [of the NJCAA World Series]," he said. "He would always say 'we're going to need to score this much to win' or ' we're going to need to do this to win.' And it didn't work out for us, but I'll never forget, we were playing San Jacinto College in the semifinal game, with the winner getting to go to the national championship game. And he's like 'guys, if we give up more than six runs, we're going to lose. Let's keep this game under six runs.' And, of course, we lose 7-6."

After his playing days ended, Vickerson found himself returning to Tuscaloosa to fill a vacancy on the coaching staff at Shelton. He then remembered back to when Sprowl called and offered to bring him back into the fold as an assistant.

"Of course, for me, it was a no-brainer, " he said of the opportunity. "It's special to be able to work under Coach Sprowl, just to be able to follow him around every day like I've been able to do for years. I mean, I just felt like that's an opportunity in itself."

A Recipe For Success

Whether he realizes it or not, Bobby Sprowl — who returned to his alma mater for a brief stint as pitching coach in 1990s — has been mentioned multiple times as a possible candidate to be the head baseball coach at the University of Alabama.

It's a situation that never saw the stars align and one that junior college baseball benefitted greatly from. As the American poet Robert Frost wrote, Sprowl took the road less travelled and it indeed made all the difference.

"[The Alabama job] is not something that that I've ever had a chance to get and nobody's ever offered it to me," Sprowl said. "And I've never been one to push for a job. You want people to want you. And I've enjoyed it [at Shelton] so much. And in college baseball, especially recently, it has changed completely from when I was coaching. There wasn't travel ball tournaments and you couldn't recruit kids when they were younger."

Still, over his 32-year career at Shelton State, Sprowl has amassed well over 1,000 wins and is among the winningest active and retired coaches at the junior college level.

Butch Hobson is one of the rare individuals to have been a starter for both the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, even becoming a big league manager. When talking at length about his former teammate and longtime friend, he said they both have an unrelenting attitude that helped them get to the big leagues — an approach to the game that shaped who they became as coaches.

"You know what I think when I when I listen to Bobby?" he asked me. "It's kind of like what I learned from Bear Bryant and it's what I teach. You play from the heart, right? That's what Bobby teaches and I think that's what we need in today's game."

Vickerson offered an interesting contrast to Hobson's Bear Bryant references, saying Sprowl's approach is similar to legendary Alabama football coach Nick Saban — it's all about a commitment to "the process."

"He doesn't try to rush that process," Vickerson said. "I think from the time you get on campus, everyone knows the standard. He's not always going to tell you what you want to hear, but he's definitely going to tell you what you need to hear. And I think that standard is there from day-one. And it's a slow process because we've always played a really tough schedule. So, sometimes early in February, we'll take offense and it just allows you to ride that rollercoaster. But, basically, what he does is he's so consistent in his approach."

Indeed, Vickerson explained that his longtime mentor is not a highly emotional man, even when the team is riding high and thrashing opponents.

"When we're playing well, he's not on top of the world and not at the bottom and that probably comes from his time in pro ball," Vickerson said. "Playing the game will tell you that you can't be emotional or you'll drive yourself crazy. So, I think with his personality just being so even keel the way he is and he knows how to get to his players at the right time and he knows how to turn this switch. Then, it sets everybody up for success."

Indeed, Sprowl is obviously doing something right as his team prepares for a sixth appearance in the NJCAA World Series.

But when talk turned to the future and I asked Sprowl about the possibility of retirement, the 67-year-old coaching legend said he intends to take things one day at a time.

Still, it's one hell of a journey when you think about it, going from a winless big league career on the mound to being one of the most successful and celebrated coaches in junior college baseball history.

"I'm only going out there because I enjoy being with the kids — they keep me young," Sprowl said. "Shelton's been great to me. I've enjoyed working at Shelton in that the administration, the faculty and staff, the athletic director, they're all great. And I know I've got to be realistic and that I'm getting more out there in age. But I'm healthy and I've still got a good mind, so I'm going to keep doing it for a little while."

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